John Mccain

WASHINGTON - John McCain's 2000 campaign for president failed, but it was an unruly and joyous romp. His campaign this time feels quite different: carefully planned, meticulously calculated - and a tragedy. Tragedy, not a word to be invoked lightly, typically involves a morally admirable person who struggles toward a goal and experiences suffering as his own choices collide with forces unleashed by the gods or by circumstance. The distinguished theater critic Walter Kerr once wrote that the tragic man "is free to free himself of obeisance to any power.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Once upon a time, John McCain promised to be a different kind of politician and a different kind of Republican. He was about straight talk, reform and nonpartisanship, a resolute foe of the slashing politics of the slaughterhouse. McCain tried to get voters to remember that man in his acceptance speech last week, the one who "worked with members of both parties to fix the problems that need to be fixed. " But that man has disappeared. The stage in the middle of the cavernous Xcel Energy Center was rearranged so McCain could conjure the feel of the town hall meetings he loves as he laced into "partisan rancor" and "the Washington crowd.

WASHINGTON - John McCain is feared by Democrats and liked by independents. That, paradoxically, is why he may yet be rejected by Republicans, even though he has bent over backward to satisfy conservative demands. McCain exorcised the ghosts of South Carolina on Saturday, winning a critical primary in a state where he was viciously savaged eight years ago by George W. Bush. McCain's loss ended his chances in 2000, but the sheer ferocity of the campaign against him only burnished his legend as the brave independent willing to confront a Republican political machine that punishes free thinking.

Robert Timberg, himself a decorated Marine veteran of Vietnam, wrote a book entitled "The Nightingale's Song" in which he detailed the military, professional and political careers of five contemporary Naval Academy graduates - John McCain being one of them. The book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the era of the Vietnam War and the profound effect that President Ronald Reagan had on Vietnam Era veterans like McCain. Timberg relates that a nightingale that has never heard another nightingale is not able to produce the melodious sounds common to the bird.

One of the few consistencies in John McCain's political career has been his ability to manipulate the press into portraying him as a courageous and principled maverick. He endured years of prison and torture during the Vietnam War. For that we all owe him respect. He has built a myth around his war experience - that it changed him from a lazy and reckless youth into an honorable and wise statesman. But his post-Vietnam record and his campaign for the presidency reveal the very opposite: a ruthless and impulsive man who will say or do anything for political advantage.

Visit KTUU , our sister station in Anchorage, Alaska, for coverage of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's choice of running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin.

Dear Editor, Good grief. This election is turning into a comedy of errors for the Republicans. We have a George W. Bush clone who has now chosen a very inexperienced woman as a running mate. John McCain is too old to be running for office, and his health is not the greatest, with severe injuries to his mind and body as a POW and a history of cancer. His speeches have shown a tendency to get confused about the Vietnam, Desert Storm and Iraq wars. Now he chooses a total novice female as a running mate.

Dear Editor, It amazes me what people will do to promote their political candidate without checking facts or history. Like some saying John McCain has always been pro-life - not so, his record says otherwise. Same thing for George Bush. He switched from pro-choice to pro-life. Now, for Al Gore, as I do not want to leave either party of flip-floppers out. During his run for president, Gore, who was campaigning as a champion for pro-choice, took a big hit when news accounts revealed he had cast anti-abortion votes and expressed anti-abortion sentiments in the 1970s and 1980s.

Dear Editor, On Oct. 25, Mr. Turner wrote that he would never vote for John McCain. He stated that being a veteran of the USAF, he does not support the war in Iraq. Well, I am a veteran of the U.S. Army (served in Korea in 1952-53), I will vote for McCain and I do support the war in Iraq. He stated weapons of mass destruction were never found. That is not the case. There were 550 metric tons of Iraq's yellow cake found by U.S. forces in 2003, safeguarded from terrorists, flown to Diego Garcia, and shipped by boat to Canada in 2008 for processing into nuclear fuel ( www.msnbc.

I am really sick and tired of hearing all those ultra right wing extremists, known as “birthers,” continue to babble how President Obama was not born in the United States. Of course he was. To continue this foolishness is merely an act of pure desperation by the Republican Party.  They realize that the GOP has the wrong candidate in Mitt Romney, that he doesn't stand for anything. That he has no conviction. No core. That his running mate, Paul Ryan, has been called out on several lies.

There’s talk in Washington about the new Republican House majority shutting down the federal government, as a similar group of freshmen did in 1995. In a discussion Wednesday on Politico.com, conservative activist Richard Viguerie is telling the new tea partisan lawmakers they need to be “more confrontational with their leaders” in opposing the Democrats. More pragmatic politicians, like Democratic state Sen. Tim Mahern of Nebraska say that if GOP control of Congress results in a shutdown, President Obama will be a shoe-in for re-election in 2012, just as Bill Clinton was in 1996.

Are traditional conservatives’ days numbered? Based on the results of recent primary elections, it would seem that Main Street Republicanism as we’ve known it since the Eisenhower era is in need of last rites. In contest after contest, tea party rebels are defeating Republican incumbents or candidates favored by the party’s establishment. On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware lost his bid for the Senate Republican nomination to Christine O’Donnell despite party officials’ warnings that she would be unelectable in November.

LOUISVILLE — Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin will be featured at the 2010 National Quartet Convention, Sept. 12-18 in Louisville. Palin, now an author and political commentator for Fox News, became only the second woman on the national ticket of a major party when Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. Palin will serve as the keynote speaker during an hour-long event on Thursday, beginning at 2 p.m. in Louisville’s Freedom Hall, located on the grounds of the Kentucky Fair & Expo Center.

"I've described Ted Kennedy as the last lion of the Senate ? He remains the single most effective member ? if you want to get results. " ? John McCain, May 2008 There were two days in the life of Sen. Edward Kennedy that define him at his best and worst. First, the worst. Chappaquiddick. July 18, 1969. There was a party at Martha's Vineyard for the presidential campaign staff of the late Robert Kennedy. Ted, the younger brother, drove a young woman to the ferry, took a wrong turn, and went off a narrow, wooden bridge with no guard rails.

In his 46 years in the Senate, no other legislator did more to improve health care for Americans than Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Early in his career, he secured funding to build community health clinics, educate physicians to serve poor parts of the country, and expand research on cancer. As a more seasoned lawmaker, he was able to work with both Democrats and Republicans to pass important health laws such as the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the COBRA rule to make employee health insurance portable.

Dear Editor, There are two things I'm really fed up to the gills hearing about; Michael Jackson and Sarah Palin. Can we please have a break? Michael is gone. He is dead. We all will have our rendezvous with death. I am sorry for the Jackson family in that they have lost a family member. I know about that all too well. But being honest, I have never been a Michael Jackson fan. I couldn't stand his music. And, his performance on and off the stage disgusted me. The world knows that he was a drug addict, which likely killed him. And it is likely that he was also a child molester.

Q. First let me tell you, I'm enjoying your book. I've only read the first two or three chapters. I'm into the part right now about (Mitch McConnell's) first campaign for county judge. A. Uh huh. That was an interesting one. Q. Why did you choose to write about McConnell? Someone was quoted as saying he "has the charisma of an oyster. " He's a powerful person, but he's not a celebrity in the sense that a John McCain or a Ted Kennedy is. A. (Laughs.) Right.

Q. First let me tell you, I'm enjoying your book. I've only read the first two or three chapters. I'm into the part right now about (Mitch McConnell's) first campaign for county judge. A. Uh huh. That was an interesting one. Q. Why did you choose to write about McConnell? Someone was quoted as saying he "has the charisma of an oyster. " He's a powerful person, but he's not a celebrity in the sense that a John McCain or a Ted Kennedy is. A. (Laughs.) Right.

Dear Editor, While many are enthusiastic and very optimistic about the forthcoming Obama administration, others are asking the question "Change, or more of the same?" While I agree with Obama's signature slogan of "change," I am not very confident he will bring the change we need, or any at all. Of course the word "change" has many different, vague interpretations, which closes the margin for failure of the promises. I do not see any new changes in the administration.